Hey you. Stop scrolling and sit down
So this stuff. Based on amount of lateral elements alone, earth is quite possibly the objectively best element to be able to bend.
So, let's start by looking at how many lateral elements earth has. There's metal (obviously), lava, sand, seimic sense, crystal, possibly wood, theoretically bone. That's 7 lateral elements for earth. Now let's compare that to the other elements.
Fire has (possibly) 3. Lightning, combustion and, theoretically, mind control through bending neuroelectricity via lightning bending.
Air has 3. Levitation, sound and spirit projection.
Water has either 3 or 5 depending on wether or not you consider state shifting and healing elements (which im going to). Those elements are state shifting (obviously), healing (again, obviously), blood, spirit and plants.
So to tally up those scores we have
Earth: 7
Water: 5
Fire and Air: 3
So yeah.
TLDR: based purely on number of lateral elements/techniques Earthbending is objectively the best element.
Obviously this is far from truely the case though, as there's a lot more to it than just lateral bending options. This probably isn't a great post but i didn't wanna keep bothering my family with this rant so yall get it instead.
